Currently, the programming received by users of third party media services such as broadcast, direct satellite, or cable television are subject to the control of the media provider, i.e. the broadcaster, or direct satellite or cable service provider. Some of the material made available for viewing may be inappropriate for certain family members, for example young children or teens. Provisions for locking out channels are available on some viewing devices, but these mechanisms support minimal control and lack the flexibility that may be required to meet the needs of the subscriber to the ever expanding choices of media services.
In addition, many service provider systems offer such a large variety of channels of programming that a large portion of those available hold little or no interest for a particular viewer. This may be due to a number of factors including, for example, the subject matter, the age or quality of the media broadcast, the content rating, the time or date of broadcast, the language in which it is distributed, technical aspects of the equipment needed to access the programming, and cost to the subscriber to view the material, to name just a few.
In a situation with multiple viewers, each viewer may have an appropriate set of preferences, privileges, or restrictions that may be different from those of others members of the household. In addition, any given user may have a different set of preferences for different times during the day or week. For example, a user may prefer to have access to industry or business-related information sources before leaving for work, and investment-related information sources upon returning in the evening following the close of financial markets. Weekend media access may focus on entertainment programming or personal information sources from family and friends. Children may be individually restricted to certain educational media sources during the school week, and only during certain hours of the day.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.